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Teammate LeBron James A Painful Reminder for Kevin Durant

James Harden and Kevin Durant with nemesis LeBron James.

Kevin Durant cannot hide from the hurt this summer. LeBron James, not Olympic teammates, is a constant reminder.

The NBA Finals ended in Miami only about three weeks ago, with James’ victory celebration interrupted only briefly to embrace Durant, the Oklahoma City Thunder star, with a consoling hug.

Now, as teammates, Durant admits seeing James everyday is not the most ideal situation. It, in fact, he admitted, bothers him.

“It does. It does, but what can I do?” Durant said. “He’s my teammate now. I’m a team player. I can’t let that affect this. This is bigger than that. It’s tough to lose in the Finals and play the guy you’ve been going up against for five games who beat you. So me, I’m just going to get over it, still be a great teammate, come out and play hard.”

James can relate to his friend Durant’s position. James experienced the heartbreak of a Finals loss last year, the Heat beaten by Dallas in their first season together. It was especially difficult on James, who played poorly in the fourth quarters of those games, adding a new level of criticism piled onto what he had already been facing since his departure from Cleveland the previous summer.

He hardly wanted to do anything in the days after that loss, and said that it would have bothered him if he had to play with then-Mavericks center Tyson Chandler last summer. So he knows what Durant must be feeling.

“It bothers him,” James said. “I bet it bothers him and Russell (Westbrook and James Harden), you know, they probably don’t want to hear about it. It would bother me, it would bother anyone that you lose to someone in the Finals, where everyone’s competing at the highest level and you want to win and then you have to team up with them not too long, not too far removed from the games.”

The Los Angeles Lakers’ Kobe Bryant was in Durant’s position  four years ago, having to shake off the disappointment of a Finals loss to the Boston Celtics and get back out on the court for the Olympics. He said it’s normal to not want to play for a few days, but figures Durant has had enough time to get over it by now. Maybe.

“But then again, I wasn’t playing on the Olympic team with, you know, Ray Allen, Paul Pierce and (Kevin) Garnett,” Bryant said. “He’s got to look at LeBron every day. I didn’t have to do that. So I don’t know if I could do that. I’d probably be trying to destroy him every single day in practice to try to, I don’t know, take a little of the edge off maybe.”

James and Durant are actually friends, James inviting Durant to work out with him last summer in Ohio. That wouldn’t make much difference to Bryant, one of the NBA’s fiercest competitors.

“Being the friends thing, I mean that’s fine,” Bryant said. “Once you start playing, I’d really, I’d have to go after him. There’s just no way.”

 

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